Switching America to Solar -- How Possible?

This video shows how very possible it could be, that it is, to switch America to solar energy.



Not only is this true, factual, but actually, if we would use our glass skyscrapers, in our cities, to have and use transparent solar cells on them, as well as the roofs of our homes, the land needed to power the nation shrinks yet more and very likely, dramatically.

US' First Solar Roadway?

Yessir. America is going to get its first solar roadway. A road, made of electricity-generating solar panels is coming to our nation, at last. And guess what state is getting them?

Why, it's little old Missouree.

America Is About to Get 

Its First Solar Roadway

Check this out:

Solar roadways are coming to the most famous highway in the United States — Route 66.

The simply named Solar Roadways, an Idaho startup run by husband-and-wife team Scott and Julie Brusaw, developed the technology and has entered a partnership with the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) to install their durable solar panels at a rest stop in Conway, Missouri, along the famous road.

The Brusaws achieved some viral fame through their Indiegogo campaign and the accompanying video, which garnered over 20 million views on Youtube and netted $2.2 million in donations for further development on the project.

The panels are roughly 70 pounds each and hexagonal, made of tempered glass that has the strength to hold cars and trucks and a tractioned surface that performs similarly to asphalt. According to the company’s website, the panels contain “LED lights to create lines and signage without paint heating elements to prevent snow and ice accumulation,” in addition to producing clean energy.

The company has been developing the technology through donations and grant programs and has passed two previous tests with federal highway officials prior to this latest project with MoDOT...

The world's first roadway has done extremely well:

World's First Solar Road Already 

Generating More Power Than Expected

So here's to you, Missouri. Leading the way into a cleaner, smarter future. We won't just leave that to the state of California any longer.

What Needs To Happen With And For Energy

I've said for a long time this is what needs to happen. We need to power our cities with our skyscrapers.

For starters.

Two Huge Sources and Reasons for Hope

I saw two media releases yesterday that gave me hope for the future of electricity and reducing pollution and carbon emissions. And then there's the hope for humankind.

First this from Bill McKibben and his 350.org group and The New Yorker:

Power to the People

Why the rise of green energy makes utility companies nervous.

A little bit from the article.

Mark and Sara Borkowski live with their two young daughters in a century-old, fifteen-hundred-square-foot house in Rutland, Vermont. Mark drives a school bus, and Sara works as a special-ed teacher; the cost of heating and cooling their house through the year consumes a large fraction of their combined income. Last summer, however, persuaded by Green Mountain Power, the main electric utility in Vermont, the Borkowskis decided to give their home an energy makeover. In the course of several days, coördinated teams of contractors stuffed the house with new insulation, put in a heat pump for the hot water, and installed two air-source heat pumps to warm the home. They also switched all the light bulbs to L.E.D.s and put a small solar array on the slate roof of the garage.

The Borkowskis paid for the improvements, but the utility financed the charges through their electric bill, which fell the very first month. Before the makeover, from October of 2013 to January of 2014, the Borkowskis used thirty-four hundred and eleven kilowatt-hours of electricity and three hundred and twenty-five gallons of fuel oil. From October of 2014 to January of 2015, they used twenty-eight hundred and fifty-six kilowatt-hours of electricity and no oil at all. President Obama has announced that by 2025 he wants the United States to reduce its total carbon footprint by up to twenty-eight per cent of 2005 levels. The Borkowskis reduced the footprint of their house by eighty-eight per cent in a matter of days, and at no net cost.

I’ve travelled the world writing about and organizing against climate change, but, standing in the Borkowskis’ kitchen and looking at their electric bill, I felt a fairly rare emotion: hope. The numbers reveal a sudden new truth—that innovative, energy-saving and energy-producing technology is now cheap enough for everyday use. The Borkowskis’ house is not an Aspen earth shelter made of adobe and old tires, built by a former software executive who converted to planetary consciousness at Burning Man. It’s an utterly plain house, with Frozen bedspreads and One Direction posters, inhabited by a working-class family of four, two rabbits, and a parakeet named Oliver. It sits in a less than picturesque neighborhood, in a town made famous in recent years for its heroin problem. Its significance lies in its ordinariness. The federal Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz, has visited, along with the entire Vermont congressional delegation. If you can make a house like this affordably green, you should be able to do it anywhere.

I’ve travelled the world writing about and organizing against climate change, but, standing in the Borkowskis’ kitchen and looking at their electric bill, I felt a fairly rare emotion: hope. The numbers reveal a sudden new truth—that innovative, energy-saving and energy-producing technology is now cheap enough for everyday use. The Borkowskis’ house is not an Aspen earth shelter made of adobe and old tires, built by a former software executive who converted to planetary consciousness at Burning Man. It’s an utterly plain house, with Frozen bedspreads and One Direction posters, inhabited by a working-class family of four, two rabbits, and a parakeet named Oliver. It sits in a less than picturesque neighborhood, in a town made famous in recent years for its heroin problem. Its significance lies in its ordinariness. The federal Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz, has visited, along with the entire Vermont congressional delegation. If you can make a house like this affordably green, you should be able to do it anywhere.

Oh, yeah.

Hope.

Secondly, this. I wrote about this a year or two ago, the hope it can and would and should mean for us. This is from Bloomberg Business News.

Invisible Solar Cells That Could Power 

Skyscrapers

Can you imagine skyscrapers, creating their own energy, their own electricity?

Can you imagine how the owners and/or developers of these things would virtually line up to have their huge, towering buildings create their own electricity?

The saved, unused, uncovered Earth since we wouldn't need as many "solar farms," covered in panels?

Can you imagine the savings?

Can you imagine the reduced pollution and carbon emissions?

Then imagine lowered--possibly drastically lowered--energy bills?

One day, getting away from hydroelectric dams, jamming up our rivers?

Imagine.

Happy Solar Day 2015

Solar Day 2015

Recognition for Clean Energy, Energy Conservation and Sustainable Living

The SolarDay Mission Statement

1 – To create a national and international day of awareness and celebration of SolarDay, including: 

A – The many benefits of solar energy and energy independence,

B – The creation of more sustainable lifestyles and businesses,

C – The adoption of green and clean-technology that does not adversely affect the planet and the atmosphere,

D – Through SolarDay activities in the U.S. and worldwide experienced by hundreds of millions of people and governments with the objectives of 40 nations participating by 2014.

E – Gain official recognition of SolarDay by the U.S. government as an annual day of recognition of solar energy and the goal of energy independence as a fundamental part of citizen and business sustainability objectives for the country.

Link:   SolarDay 2015 | Solar, Sustainabilty, Clean Technology

The Way Forward in Energy

This, then, is a part of what our future could and should be and for so many reasons:

Solar Streets: New Roadways May Ditch Asphalt for Energy

Imagine having our streets laying in the sunlight, generating electricity, as our glass commercial towers and home roofs are, also.  Far cleaner, no need for coal, far less pollution, cutting carbon dioxide emissions, all that. Doing away with coal, coal mines, the dirty, literally sickening, even killing industry we know it still is.

This is the way forward. This gives hope and in more ways than one.

Quote of the day -- and from a surprising source

How cool is this?

I just found it on a friend's page on Facebook.

 

 

Some stats on it:

 

1,800 MPG

Total weight 150 lbs

Load capacity 350 lbs

Electric motor 750 watt

Electric power 20 mph

Electric range 14+ miles

Charge via outlet 1 1/2 hours

Charge via sunlight~ 7 hours

 

And made in the USA.

 

Links: 

 

http://www.organictransit.com/

 

http://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu · Dec 16, 2013
Dean of Duke's Nicholas School

 

http://www.greatfallstribune.com · December 16, 2013
Montana...thinking ahead.

http://www.betterworldclub.com/ · Dec. 16, 2013
Free 24/7 roadside assistance

This will put solar energy in warp speed

Recently, I wrote about the invention and development out of UCLA that allowed solar photovoltaic cells to be transparent. It would make the laying on of these clear cells as sheets, very likely, on existing glass and windows to create electricity quickly, far more clean and far less expensive.

Now, today, I found this and its prediction, mirroring mine but far more precisely:

Foster's Solar-Skinned Buildings Signal Market Tripling

From the article:

From stadiums in Brazil to a bank headquarters in Britain, architects led by Norman Foster are integrating solar cells into the skin of buildings, helping the market for the technology triple within two years.

Sun-powered systems will top the stadia hosting 2014 FIFA World Cup football in Brazil. In Manchester, northern England, the Co-operative Group Ltd. office has cells from Solar Century Holdings Ltd. clad into its vertical surfaces.

The projects mark an effort by designers to adopt building-integrated photovoltaics, or BIPV, where the power-generating features are planned from the start instead of tacked on as an afterthought. Foster and his customers are seeking to produce eye-catching works while meeting a European Union directive that new buildings should produce next to zero emissions after 2020.

“Building integrated solar in office buildings and factories which generate energy consistently during daylight hours, whilst not requiring additional expensive land space or unsightly installations, is seen as the most obvious energy solution,” said Gavin Rezos, principal of Viaticus Capital Ltd., an Australian corporate advisory company that’s one of the private equityfunds putting money into the technology.
Growing Market

The market for solar laid onto buildings and into building materials is expected to grow to $7.5 billion by 2015 from about $2.1 billion, according to Accenture Plc, citing research from NanoMarkets. Sales of solar glass are expected to reach as much as $4.2 billion by 2015, with walls integrating solar cellsat $830 million. About $1.5 billion is expected to be generated from solar tiles and shingles.

The technology provides a respite for solar manufacturers, opening the way for them to charge a premium for products. Traditional solar panel prices have fallen 90 percent since 2008 due to oversupply, cutting margins and pushing more than 30 companies including Q-Cells SE and a unit of Suntech Power Holdings Co. into bankruptcy.

We are truly, I think, clearly on the verge of an energy revolution that will take the world and rather quickly. A great deal of good will come from this, too, like far less expensive electricity for all and made far cleaner. Energy to our homes could nearly become like water, it seems. Possibly even less expensive than that. 

Imagine how quickly the owners of the businesses in the nation will want to buy up this technology, so they can create their own electricity so they cut their energy bill drastically.  Look at the Kansas City skyline alone:

And it's these businesses and corporations and buildings, doing this first--and likely very rapidly, since they'll save so much money so quickly--that will expedite this transition across the nation and world. Then, once that's forthcoming, it will be available for homes as well.

What's unfortunate is that all the governments across the world should respond to this a bit ahead of time by creating a necessary transition from our coal- and nuclear-based plants, generating power now, the way we're set up, to their being a "back up", which is what we'll need them for.

But governments, by and large, likely won't do that.

Here's hoping we get smart first, before this all takes place.

Solar panels will, very, very shortly, be a thing of the past, an energy dinosaur, as will coal and nuclear power.

Thank goodness and good riddance.

A huge, very important solar "game changer", folks

This is huge.

UCLA researchers create highly transparent solar cells for windows

And why is this "huge"?

It's big and important for a few reasons.

First, it makes electricity created from the sun far less expensive.  That alone is an important step in getting electricity from the sun more widespread so we can have far cleaner energy and less pollution and carbon dioxide spread around the world. 

Second, it makes it far easier to install on, say, all the glass business towers across the US and world. That, again, makes it far more likely to happen and spread.  Nothing but environment wins for us.

Third, it makes solar energy far less polluting itself, since solar panels wouldn't have to be created.

I don't think people understand how big and pivotal and important this is and can be, for the US and even the world.

It's been said that, whatever nation "owns" solar energy will also "own" the next century. It's important we be on top of this, as a nation. This needs to be patented quickly and, unfortunately, the technology kept from the Chinese. We can sell it to them but that's all.

Now, that said, I'd have to immediately fall back on that and say that, the minute we do sell it to them, they'll take apart and mimic that same technology and create their own so the "win" for us will be short-lived.

Coincidentally, from The New York Times yesterday:

China's Feud With West on Solar Leads to Tax

This could help us avoid a trade war with China, at the same time, a fourth big benefit of this development. This would make that a thing of the past. We would, in effect, leapfrog over this problem of trade with the Chinese on now-antiquated solar panels.  A total win.

All that said, this could and should make energy not only far cleaner and less polluting and distributing far less carbon dioxide but it should also help get energy far more cheaply, out to the entire world and should and reduce the costs of electricity but also get it out to more of the poor and impoverished of the world, too, unless it's controlled only by corporations and the governments they "own."

I'm also thinking--and hoping--that this technology will allow the purchaser to merely put this on existing windows, too, and not have to replace them. If that's the case, and I feel strongly it either is or will be, it just makes it that much bigger a solar energy advancement. That owners and developers of existing skyscrapers and other companies and corporations could merely put these electricity-generating cells on their existing windows would be a huge energy savings for those companies, at the same time it reduces pollution.

This could, conceivably, be, if not a death knell, certainly a huge dent in our need for very-polluting power plants with all their coal and pollution and yes, carbon dioxide emitting stacks.

It could also, quite conceivably, lead to cars with these cells on not just the glass, maybe, but on the hood and roof and trunk, so they generate their own, clean power and we start polluting far less with our transportation one day soon, too. That would be a great advance for the planet.

This breakthrough should make it reasonably-priced, then, for corporations, organizations and building owners, at least, to put these on existing buildings so they generate their own power. Can you imagine the short- and long-term savings of doing away with most of a skyscraper's utility bill? Added to it, in much of the year, I'd be very surprised if those same glass towers would generate more power than the building would require so they could and would be able to sell that additional power back to the utility company as is now prescribed by law.

Finally, folks, note where this was made, note who created this breakthrough.

Yes, it was UCLA--the University of California at Los Angeles.

It wasn't a corporation.

That, too, is huge.  

It's also why we need to both stop cutting education funding and absolutely stop making education more and more expensive for the students and children in the nation.

But that's another story.

For now, let's just enjoy that this has apparently been created and that it was created here in the good old US of A.

Great solar energy news out of California

Just as I'd hoped and written about here, earlier:

How your windows could be the future of electricity: Scientists create transparent solar panels out of 'glass-like' plastic

"...researchers developed a new transparent solar cell which means windows in homes and other buildings can have the ability to generate electricity while still allowing people to see outside.

The University of California, Los Angeles team describes a new kind of polymer solar cell (PSC) that produces energy by absorbing mainly infrared light, making the cells nearly 70 per cent transparent to the human eye.

They made the device from a photo-active plastic that converts infrared light into an electrical current.

"'These results open the potential for visibly transparent polymer solar cells as add-on components of portable electronics, smart windows and building-integrated photovoltaics and in other applications,' said study leader Yang Yang, a UCLA professor of materials science and engineering."

Here's one of the most important, additional features:

"'Our new PSCs are made from plastic-like materials and are lightweight and flexible,' he said. 'More importantly, they can be produced in high volume at low cost.'"

This is, potentially, a huge breakthrough.

Now if we can just put these all over our homes and commercial buildings, we'll be able to generate our own electricity, save loads of money, burn less coal and clean the air significantly, just with this one advancement. We'll be far less dependent on the utility companies, as well, of course. Finally, it seems we would be able to, eventually, anyway, do away also with nuclear energy, its costs and all the residual, additional nuclear waste we never knew how or where to store.

Those are huge improvements for societies and nations.

With the loss of power for some 600 million people in India the last two days, too, it's been pointed out that that is an excellent and timely reminder of coal's big weaknessses and shortcomings. If we can get this kind of technology out across the world, even the poor could have a steady, reliable and clean source of electrical energy. The benefits of this are multiple, at least, if not exponential.

I still say this could also lead to cars and buses having this same technology on them so we'd run clean transportation, too.

Here's hoping this spreads and spreads quickly, across the nation and world.

It is said that the nation that "owns" solar technology will own the next century.

Even if that's not true, this is a huge boon, potentially, for the nation and even, again, the world and in many ways.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2177763/Scientists-create-transparent-solar-panels-glass-like-plastic.html

Coincidentally, this article came out today, too:

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/31/613161/massive-blackout-leaves-620-million-indians-without-power-demonstrating-dangers-of-relying-on-outdated-coal-system/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29

Is China fighting "the next war" while the US is fighting the "last war"?

For anyone who's read about or studied war, there is a famous line of thought that too many losing sides were always fighting the "last war", the previous war.

With the US still spending at least $711 million dollars per year on war and weapons of war, I think the likelihood is high that the US is still, in fact, fighting World War II or Vietnam or something, while China realizes that spending on their people and society and business and their economy is the "next war."

China is working hard and spending big on manufacturing, period, but on photovoltaic cells and solar technology, specifically, apparently and that may be, in fact, that "next war" at present.

It's fairly well accepted as truth that China is, right now, manufacturing lots of solars panels and dumping them on our American market.

The fact is, it's been widely accepted that whatever country owns solar energy in general, but photovoltaic cells, specifically, owns the next century.

Maybe we need to wise up.

And fast.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31825

You just can't understate how cool this photograph is

As lots of us have maybe heard, the transit of planet Venus is taking place today. People will be able to see the "tiny" planet Venus going across the Sun, between the Earth and Sun.

It's fascinating stuff.

What gets me about all this, are the pictures, like the one above, showing such a transit.

It blows me away showing the size and scale of Venus, compared to the Sun.

Sure, there's some distortion, naturally, because of the distances but still, it gives some better idea of what's out there and the sizes involved.

Incredible stuff, indeed.

Something I don't take for granted.

Brilliant.

Note: There's a great story on NPR's website, too, telling of how this transit of Venus figures in humankind's scientific development and when we first knew of it: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/06/05/154353521/how-the-transit-of-venus-helped-unlock-the-universe

Solar Eclipse we can enjoy later this week

For those who care, there is supposed to be a soar eclipse later this week we should be able to see here in Kansas City, provided the weather cooperates.

From KMBC 9 News/weather:

Sky watchers could be in for a treat on Sunday: Space.com reports that a solar eclipse will be visible over much of the United States, including Kansas City.

Space.com reports that the eclipse willget begin in the central time zone at 7:22 p.m. It will reach its maximum at 8:08 p.m.

Kansas City will see a partial eclipse. We likely won't to see the end of it because the sun will set before the event ends.

Link: http://www.kmbc.com/weather/31060504/detail.html

Solar cells, all over commercial buildings, residences, cars--and clothing?

Further proof, I think and hope, that one day--and one day sooner than we thought--we'll be able to have solar cells all over our commercial buildings and homes in order to generate clean, renewable, solar electric power. Then we could also do away with the need for big power companies and, more importantly, electricity from coal-fired power plants, their very dirty air pollution and even nuclear power plants. This article today: Scientists develop ultra-thin solar cells "Austrian and Japanese researchers on Wednesday unveiled solar cells thinner than a thread of spider silk that are flexible enough to be wrapped around a single human hair. The thin-film device, comprising electrodes on a plastic foil, is about 1.9 micro-metres thick, a tenth the size of the thinnest solar cells currently available, the researchers said." One micro-metre is one millionth of a metre (3.3 feet).

"'The total thickness of this device is less than a typical thread of spider silk,' the researchers said in a report carried by online science journal Nature Communications. 'Being ultra-thin means you don't feel its weight and it is elastic,' said one of the researchers, Tsuyoshi Sekitani from the University of Tokyo. 'You could attach the device to your clothes like a badge to collect electricity (from the sun)... Elderly people who might want to wear sensors to monitor their health would not need to carry around batteries,' Sekitani told AFP." This is a pretty incredible discovery and revelation. This can make progess for clean electrical power that much sooner and more likely. As ever, here's hoping. Link to original story: http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-develop-ultra-thin-solar-cells-193214134.html

Kansas representative is no. 2 on "most money received from 'Big Oil'"

None other than Kansas' own Representative Mike Pompeo (Republican, Wichita, Ks) is the number two recipient/beneficiary of the most money from "Big Oil." Mr. Pompeo took home $333,156 in the last two years from the oil and gas lobby--more than anyone else but one person. That honor goes to Representative Steven Pearce of New Mexico, also, of course, a Republican. In fact, of the top then beneficiaries on the list, 9 out of the 10 are Republicans. No surprise, that. Nearly needless to say, Mr. Pompeo won't be supporting any "clean" or "green", sustainable fuel sources or technology any time soon, no doubt, not even if it can help the nation get cleaner air, more jobs and free of independence from Middle East oil, nosirree. Links: http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/01/11/402533/oil-dollars-members-of-congress-pushing-keystone-xl-decision/?mobile=nc; http://maplight.org/content/72909

Iowa, one of top 5 states saving on energy

A report out today shows that neighboring state Iowa is one of the "The 5 States With the Most Installed Wind and Solar Power Saw the Least Increase in Electricity Prices from 2005-2010." The top 5 states are Texas, California, Iowa, Minnesota, and Oregon. As the article says, "The health, environmental, and direct job creation benefits of renewable energy vs. traditional forms of power generation are widely accepted. All other things being equal, it would be a foregone conclusion that renewable energy should be chosen over other types of generation." If one only looked at these factors,cost, above, it seems the investment in clean, "green" solar and wind energy makes sense. If one also takes into account the carbon dioxide and pollution, at minimum, that is not released into the atmosphere, the benefits continue to mount. Think happy thoughts, y'all---and enjoy your Sunday. Link to original article: http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/12/18/390865/states-most-installed-wind-solar-power-least-increase-in-electricity-prices/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29

Solar cells on all our commercial and residential buildings

I saw this news video today and it proposed what I said here some time ago and that is that we should use photovoltaic cells to transform all the exterior surfaces and buildings we can--commercial and residential buildings--to create our solar power.

With this, we could at least shrink the power companies, at minimum, if not, eventually, do away with them completely, to generate our electrical power. More power to us--power to the people.

The nation's--and world's?--"save": clean, renewable, affordable solar energy

"And now for something completely different: the success story you haven’t heard about. These days, mention solar power and you’ll probably hear cries of 'Solyndra!' Republicans have tried to make the failed solar panel company both a symbol of government waste — although claims of a major scandal are nonsense — and a stick with which to beat renewable energy. But Solyndra’s failure was actually caused by technological success: the price of solar panels is dropping fast, and Solyndra couldn’t keep up with the competition. In fact, progress in solar panels has been so dramatic and sustained that, as a blog post at Scientific American put it, “there’s now frequent talk of a ‘Moore’s law’ in solar energy,” with prices adjusted for inflation falling around 7 percent a year. This has already led to rapid growth in solar installations, but even more change may be just around the corner. If the downward trend continues — and if anything it seems to be accelerating — we’re just a few years from the point at which electricity from solar panels becomes cheaper than electricity generated by burning coal. And if we priced coal-fired power right, taking into account the huge health and other costs it imposes, it’s likely that we would already have passed that tipping point. But will our political system delay the energy transformation now within reach? Let’s face it: a large part of our political class, including essentially the entire G.O.P., is deeply invested in an energy sector dominated by fossil fuels, and actively hostile to alternatives. This political class will do everything it can to ensure subsidies for the extraction and use of fossil fuels, directly with taxpayers’ money and indirectly by letting the industry off the hook for environmental costs, while ridiculing technologies like solar. So what you need to know is that nothing you hear from these people is true. Fracking is not a dream come true; solar is now cost-effective. Here comes the sun, if we’re willing to let it in." --Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist, writer and columnist, The New York Times Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/opinion/krugman-here-comes-solar-energy.html?_r=1&src=tp&smid=fb-share http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/opinion/krugman-here-comes-solar-energy.html?_r=1&src=tp&smid=fb-share

Huge solar power breakthrough from the University of Missouri!

Big news!

Check it out:

Efficiency is a problem with today's solar panels; they only collect about 20 percent of available light. Now, a University of Missouri engineer has developed a flexible solar sheet that captures more than 90 percent of available light, and he plans to make prototypes available to consumers within the next five years.

Nonlinear White Paper - Use nonlinear analysis to simulate real-world behavior. Find out more. - www.nenastran.com/nonlinear/

Patrick Pinhero, an associate professor in the MU Chemical Engineering Department, says energy generated using traditional photovoltaic (PV) methods of solar collection is inefficient and neglects much of the available solar electromagnetic (sunlight) spectrum. The device his team has developed – essentially a thin, moldable sheet of small antennas called nantenna – can harvest the heat from industrial processes and convert it into usable electricity. Their ambition is to extend this concept to a direct solar facing nantenna device capable of collecting solar irradiation in the near infrared and optical regions of the solar spectrum.

Working with his former team at the Idaho National Laboratory and Garrett Moddel, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Colorado, Pinhero and his team have now developed a way to extract electricity from the collected heat and sunlight using special high-speed electrical circuitry. This team also partners with Dennis Slafer of MicroContinuum, Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., to immediately port laboratory bench-scale technologies into manufacturable devices that can be inexpensively mass-produced.

"Our overall goal is to collect and utilize as much solar energy as is theoretically possible and bring it to the commercial market in an inexpensive package that is accessible to everyone," Pinhero said. "If successful, this product will put us orders of magnitudes ahead of the current solar energy technologies we have available to us today."

As part of a rollout plan, the team is securing funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and private investors. The second phase features an energy-harvesting device for existing industrial infrastructure, including heat-process factories and solar farms.

Within five years, the research team believes they will have a product that complements conventional PV solar panels. 

Here is something I predicted, here, at this blog, some time earlier and that is so exciting and holds so much promise:

Because it's a flexible film, Pinhero believes it could be incorporated into roof shingle products, or be custom-made to power vehicles.

Once the funding is secure, Pinhero envisions several commercial product spin-offs, including infrared (IR) detection. These include improved contraband-identifying products for airports and the military, optical computing, and infrared line-of-sight telecommunications.

A study on the design and manufacturing process was published in the Journal of Solar Energy Engineering.

I'm telling you, folks, we're already getting much, much closer to being able to have solar energy that is extremely affordable and totally clean.

And we will gain the benefits of being able to virtually completely, if not completely, do away with power plants and electrical utility companies.

This makes the likelihood of our own houses and office buildings and even cars, generating their own very clean and green, renewable energy, far more possible and likely.

Now, just please don't say three things:

1)  Solar power isn't practical or likely even in the long-run, let alone in the short term;

2)  All our schools suck or 

3)  That we don't need at least some government and/or that government serves no or not enough positive function in our society.

And enjoy that beautiful sunshine out there today, folks.

Additional link: http://climateprogress.org/2011/05/17/news-japanese-officials-concealed-nuke-dangers-renewable-resources-soar-solar-nantenna-can-capture-95-of-light/#more-49322